Cop faces sexual attack charges

Jim Herron Zamora, OF THE EXAMINER STAFF

Published 4:00 am, Thursday, February 23, 1995

1995-02-23 04:00:00 PDT SAN FRANCISCO -- A San Francisco police officer faces departmental charges of sexually attacking a woman as she gave him a ride home, according to documents filed with the Police Commission.

William T. Taylor allegedly pinned down, kissed and fondled the woman while she was giving him a ride home after he had been out drinking, according to internal police charges presented to the Police Commission Wednesday night.

Although the departmental charges accuse Taylor of sexual battery, San Francisco's district attorney has not been asked to investigate, a spokesman said Thursday. The charges were presented to the commission by the police Management Control Division, which investigates allegations of officer wrongdoing.

Taylor was assigned to the Tenderloin Task Force at the time of the alleged incident and has since been reassigned to the Records Section. He is still on active duty.

Taylor declined to comment on the case Wednesday night.

He allegedly tried to French-kiss the woman during a March 30 incident, then forced her to stop the car, pinned her down and fondled her, according to the departmental charges.

The documents do not identify the woman or elaborate on what, if any, relationship he had with the woman or what circumstances led to the alleged incident.

Taylor already faces unrelated charges filed against him last August for a 1993 incident in which he allegedly put out a lit cigarette on the head of a suspect who was handcuffed to a bench at the Tenderloin Task Force station.

Also on Wednesday, the Police Commission adopted a new policy spelling out the rights of bystanders who witness police making arrests, saying they may observe as long as they don't interfere with officers, violate the law or incite illegal action.

The commission rejected a provision that would have allowed officers to confiscate videotapes of police activity in cases where the officers believed the tapes contained crucial evidence.

Instead, officers will be allowed to request that a bystander give them the videotape. If the witness refuses, the officer can later ask a judge to issue a search warrant to obtain the tape. But police cannot force a witness to give up the tapes at the scene.

The vote followed discussion of a police raid of a fund-raiser early New Year's Day in the South of Market, in which 11 people were arrested and police seized a camcorder and a camera.

ACLU attorney John Crew cited the Rodney King beating in March 1991, saying, "Had the now-imprisoned police officers involved in the incident seen George Holliday (videotaping them) on his balcony, this policy provision would have allowed them to seize his camera and videotape." &lt;

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